Mrs. Alice Roberts
After returning to Texas in 1881
Edith L. Crawford Words-685
Carrizozo, N.Mex.
Words-685
Mar 14 1938 PIONEER STORY
After returning to Texas in [1881?], we stayed there five years. Mr. Roberts
went beck to farming and stock raising but we were not satisfied to stay in
Texas. In September 1886 we sold our farm and cattle, kept thirty head of
horses and started out again for New Mexico. My father, W. L. Parker, my
mother, one brother, two sisters and a young man by the name of Jim Walker,
whom we brought along to drive the extra horses, besides Mr. Roberts and
myself and our five children, made up this party. We came in two covered
wagons, each drawn by two horses. We camped out at night. We were not so
afraid of the Indians as we were on our first trip as the Government had
calmed them down by this time, although the Indians would steal horses from
the settlers whenever they had an opportunity.
It was a long drive between watering places and our stock suffered for the
want of water. We hauled our drinking water in kegs and had to be awful saving
with it. We would stop at the big stock ranches, water our stock, fill up our
kegs and buy fresh meat. The only meat we had on our trip was cotton tail
rabbits that we killed on the way. We arrived at Nogal, New Mexico, the last
of November 1886. My husband was still looking for a rich gold mine, but all
the good claims had been located when we returned to Nogal, so he went to
hauling freight from Socorro New Mexico to White Oaks and Nogal New Mexico.
Nogal was a lively mining town in those days. There were two stores, two
saloons and a hotel. Lincoln County was a wide open stock country then and
when the round ups were over in the fall the cow boys would come to Nogal to
spend their summer wages. At the dances the cow boys would get drunk and would
have shooting scrapes and they would shoot out the lights in the dance hall. I
remember
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one night they killed Bill Ellis in one of their drunken brawls. He was e
brother to Noah Ellis, who owned the I - X ranch, which was about 27 miles
south of Nogal. Nogal was a wide open town, there was a lot of money spent
there. We lived there for several years and then bought us a place of our own
at Bonito City, New Mexico, located on the Bonito River at the foot of the
White Mountains. The land was very rich and fertile. We raised nice irish
potatoes, cabbage etc., and all kinds of garden stuff but the summer seasons
were very short as we were so high up in the mountains. We sold our produce at
Fort Stanton, Nogal, White Oaks and Roswell. We also raised cattle and sheep.
My father and mother were both born in Texas. My father was a freighter in
Rusk Texas. He raised stock too. They moved from Rusk to Llano Texas, where
they farmed and raised stock until they sold out and come to New Mexico in
1886, with us. My father and family left Nogal and went to San Pedro New
Mexico, which was a coal mining town, and ran a hotel there. They stayed there
for about two years and then came back to us on the Bonito. After a short
while they moved back to Texas but were not satisfied so they came back to
Nogal. One of my sisters died there. By this time all of my father's family
had moved out west and were living in and around Nogal except my brother Ben
who was living in California. My father went out there to visit him and took
sick and died while there. My mother lived with my three sisters and me until
she died in 1909. Mr. Roberts and I had eight children, three girls and five
boys. One girl died while still a baby but all the rest of my children are
living. Mr. Roberts died in 1913.
NARRATOR: Mrs. Alice Roberts, Carrizozo New Mexico. Aged 78 years.
Credit: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project
Collection.
Lincoln
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